Oceanside looks to raise ambulances fees

OCEANSIDE -- Oceanside appears poised this summer to increase
ambulance fees for emergency responses as part of a broader attempt
by the city to recover costs for services and to generate more
money for public safety.

Although the City Council isn't scheduled to hold a hearing on
ambulance fees until August, the increases in fees -- and the
resulting increases in revenue to the city -- are included in the
city's budget that is set for approval June 16.

Fire officials said they are still studying how much to raise
ambulance fees, which currently cost city residents $512 for an
advanced life-support trip and $422 for a basic life-support trip,
where the patient is simply transported and doesn't receive
extensive life-saving support care.

Residents outside of Oceanside are charged $802 for advanced
life support and $712 for a basic life-support trip.

The city has factored an extra $300,000 a year in revenue from
increases in ambulance fees into its proposed budget. The increases
would help pay the nearly $1 million cost to hire five new police
officers and improve the fire dispatch in each of the next two
years, according to the city's budget plans.

In addition to the ambulance fees, the Fire Department is also
considering upping its prices for mileage fees paid by residents
transported by emergency vehicles, along with passing on increases
in the cost of patient medicine.

Lynne Seabloom, assistant training officer for the Fire
Department, described the $300,000-a-year projections in the city's
budget for increased revenue from the increase in ambulance fees as
speculative, because the council will not take action on the rate
hikes until August. Seabloom said the approval is solely the
discretion of the council.

Fire Chief Robert Osby said a fraction of the proposed fee
increases would go toward better training, but that most of the
extra money would be used to cover rising costs.

"It's strictly so we can break even and have people pay for
their services," Osby said. "That's always been the purpose and the
target for the services we provide."

The Fire Department responded to 11,100 calls for service in
2003, with about 7,800 calls being medical calls for service. Those
numbers are up slightly from 10,700 calls for service in 2002, with
roughly 7,600 calls being medical calls for service.

For its proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1,
fire and emergency operations account for $13.2 million of the Fire
Department's $17 million budget. The Fire Department estimates that
its operations costs will increase to $14 million in fiscal year
2005-06.

The ambulance fee increase are part of a larger initiative by
the city to recover the cost of providing services.

In May, the council increased the amount of fees for false
alarms paid by residents and business owners. The council voted to
make owners pay the fees, beginning with the first false alarm
instead of the third false alarm, giving the city a projected extra
$140,000 a year in revenue.

In its original budget presentation, the city had estimated that
an additional $100,000 would have been generated by the false-alarm
fees.

In the city's overall budget, the $140,000 increase in
false-alarm fees, the estimated $300,000 in additional ambulance
fees, and another proposal to raise $500,000 by increasing parking
fees and fines downtown, would pay for new police officers and
improvements to fire dispatch.

Under the parking proposal, fees at the city's 600 parking
meters would double, from 50 cents to $1 per hour, and parking
violation fines would jump from $27 to $50.

The $900,000 generated per year would pay for $300,000 worth of
improvements to fire dispatch, and five new police officers. Each
year, two of the five new officers would be assigned to the
downtown and three would be assigned to gang and neighborhood
response teams.

The improvements to fire dispatch would include additional
training, some newer technology, and potentially more fire
dispatchers.